Taipei Travel

In late spring each year, the ponds and thickets at Taipei Zoo are always full of life, with quiet scenes of bird parents caring for their young appearing throughout the grounds. In the Bird World Waterfowl Area, precocial waterbirds such as the common moorhen and white-breasted waterhen hatchlings are able to move around and forage with their parents soon after hatching. Visitors can also spot "teenage" birds in the Bird World Waterfowl Area hatched last summer, including a grey crowned crane and a greater flamingo. For example, the subadult greater flamingo is already close to adult size, but its grey-black plumage and legs still look quite different from those of a fully grown bird. A Palawan peacock-pheasant chick was also recently born in the Pheasants and Rare Birds Area, while a newly hatched red-crowned crane chick in front of the Amphibian and Reptile House is growing fast. Although it still often stays close to its mother or hides in the grass, its neck and legs are becoming increasingly long and strong. If you want to catch the red-crowned crane chick while it is still small and adorable, be sure to take the opportunity.

Taipei Zoo's waterfowl area is an immersive walk-through aviary, with abundant planting and water spaces designed for waterbirds. Every spring, visitors can often discover baby waterbirds quietly appearing among the grass. White-breasted waterhen chicks, which are precocial birds, hatch covered in down with their eyes open, and before long they can follow their parents around and even swim. They are often seen moving faintly along the water's edge like little black "charcoal balls." Common moorhen chicks also look like black fluff balls, but during their juvenile stage they have a barer forehead and a red beak, which makes them look different from white-breasted waterhen chicks. Sometimes, visitors may even see young from different broods raised by the same pair of common moorhen parents living together, creating an interesting scene with adults, brown subadults, and puffball-like chicks all in one frame.

Taipei Zoo reminds visitors that it is normal for precocial chicks to appear and move around in the wild, and their parents may be nearby caring for them. So if you encounter a baby bird that appears healthy and can move normally, please do not rush to take it away for rescue or keep it on your own. Leaving it where it is gives it the best chance to grow up successfully under its parents' care.